The Supreme Court on Thursday declined a request from prosecutors to hear the case.

The state Court of Appeals ruled last fall that a Hinds County judge erred in failing to tell jurors in Stanley Cole's trial that they could consider a manslaughter conviction as an alternative to a murder conviction.

The jury convicted Cole of murder in 2010. Cole has acknowledged killing the 20-year-old woman, but maintains it was an accident. Cole said the two were fighting in a car when Norman hit her head and he couldn't resuscitate her.